Impact of 3D effects on the characteristics of a multi-monochromatic x-ray imager.

The multi-monochromatic x-ray imager instrument records arrays of time-gated spectrally resolved images of inertial confinement fusion targets. In the past, the image characteristics and spectral resolution of the instrument were estimated using a paraxial approximation and ignoring the substrate thickness of the pinhole array (PHA). In this work, we remove these two approximations to derive new analytic approximations and test them using a 3D ray tracing model.

X-ray line polarization of He-like Si satellite spectra in plasmas driven by high-intensity ultrashort pulsed lasers.

We present a modeling study of x-ray line polarization in plasmas driven by high-intensity, ultrashort duration pulsed lasers. Electron kinetics simulations of these transient and nonequilibrium plasmas predict non-Maxwellian and anisotropic electron distribution functions. Under these conditions, the magnetic sublevels within fine structure levels can be unequally populated which leads to the emission of polarized lines.